A6: If I screw up my party...?

[Leaper]

I read when I was playing Avernum: Escape From the Pit that it used to be (in its original incarnation) easy to make a party that simply could not finish the game, and that this was fixed.

 

What about A6? I figure, it's the sixth in the series AND a remake, so I should be able to finish with "any" party as long as I don't egregiously make wild and wacky decisions, but is that so?

 

Thanks! SInce I'm just starting, I'm trying to avoid spoilers and too much advice.

[Randomizer]

It depends upon the difficulty, there is a significant difference in monster health after you leave the Eastern Gallery. The second round beta testers had trouble finishing the game from here on and the game wasn't made that much easier after that.

[Leaper]

Uh oh. Well, how long is it from the start of the game? I suppose starting over wouldn't be too bad, depending...

[Randomizer]

It's about 66-80% of the game before you have real problems. Plus there is some minor things you can do to get a few more levels.

[Jerakeen]

But A6 isn't a remake.

[Leaper]

It's not? Huh. I could've sworn I read somewhere that it'd been a while since it was out for desktop computers.

[Lilith]

A6 has been out for a while, compared to A:EftP. But it's still not a remake: the first three Avernum games are remakes of the Exile trilogy, but 4, 5 and 6 were entirely original content.

[Leaper]

Oh. I meant the iPad version that I'm playing. Sorry for the confusion.

[Lilith]

Ah. The iPad version of Avernum 6 is just a straight port of the desktop version, not a remake.

[Leaper]

Aaaand now I see the Custom option. Ah, well, it's not TOO many skill points "wasted". If I really really get desperate, I'll use the character editor to "correct" them, but hopefully I won't need to do that!

[The Reverend]

Aaaand now I see the Custom option. Ah, well, it's not TOO many skill points "wasted". If I really really get desperate, I'll use the character editor to "correct" them, but hopefully I won't need to do that!

Some of the preset character types aren't that bad. Custom is probably best, but I made it through on hard difficulty with a hedge wizard and a shaman (I picked them for role playing purposes, to give my characters a back story). And mage-priests and priest-mages are perfectly viable in A6, so neither of those character types has very many wasted skill points (the weapons points are useful because they give battle disciplines, which help spell casters, too).

[Earth]

priest-mage and mage-priest are basically must since priest lacks aoe spells until bit later and 2 healers and buffers is nice to have.

[Leaper]

Huh... Another thing I was "told" in A:EFTP not to do. Well, my party is around L13-14; I guess it's not too late to start training my priest and mage up in the "opposite" type of magic.

[Jerakeen]

A6 is very different than AEFTP. Dual-classed characters are much more feasible in the older Avernums generally.

[Juan Carlo]

A6 is easier than EFTP, IMHO.

 

As long as you aren't playing any weird combos, I wouldn't worry too much about party planning in A6.

 

I just finished A6 on torment with a traditional party (priest, mage, and two melee) and I didn't have much trouble. There are a few hard fights but all the really hard ones are optional and as long as you don't wander too far outside of where you are supposed to be (which, unlike EFTP, is much harder to do in A6), you should be fine.

 

I would pay attention to skill trainers, though, as in a lot of cases it's feasible to hold off on raising skills until you can train them, which while not necessary will give you an extra boost by the end of the game.

[Earth]

of course if priest is just healer and buffer and mage deals damage alongside fighters then no need for mage-priest and priest-mage as long as priest stays out of enemies hands. each have their own playstyle, I prefer all 4 dealing damage.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

Well, It's not as if the priest is totally devoid of attacking options.

[Jerakeen]

No, the priest has awesome offensive power in A6, but is often too busy to use it. I like to play with a mage, a priest, and a hybrid (plus a warrior) for that reason.

[Death Knight]

If you do screw up your party in this trilogy its just as big of a kick to the teeth as it is in Geneforge series. I remember just recently got through half the game in gene forge 3, only to hit a roadblock and be unable to progress further. I basically just lost 5-6 hours. The reason I guess why Avernum is a little less forgiving, is because you are running a 3 or 4 player party. If one character is fairly lackluster, its much less of a burden than in Geneforge. The reason being is that in Geneforge, everything stems from that character. If that character isn't on top of the right stats, you've got a major problem as that affects all your creations as well.

[Earth]

sure priest has its own offensive spells but those are either single target or energy comsuming or usable against only some enemies (divine fire is wee bit useless against Sliths).

[Mosquito---Slayer]

If it had both great offensive spells and healing powers there wouldn't be any point in making a mage.

(Except for dispel barrier, but a mage purely for that purpose would be stupid too)

[Leaper]

Update: I'm almost at level 30 with my humans, on my way to Formello. Reading another thread, I'm starting to be skeptical of some of my decisions (like not pumping endurance even more, though everyone is minimum 8 - fortunately, all can increase it at next level up).

 

This brought to mind the question: how do I know if I've somehow created a useless party? How do I know how to fix it, if it's at all possible?

[Randomizer]

Endurance 8 is fine for normal difficulty.

 

There is a character editor to fix some mistakes with your characters. How to fix a problem is dependent on why you are having trouble. Not hitting means more in the attack skills. Dying too quickly means more endurance.

[Lilith]

Well, uh, how much trouble are you having in combat? The fights around Formello are going to be a bit tedious no matter what, but are you actually reloading a lot because half your party just died?

[Leaper]

1) I'm in Hard right now.

 

2) Well, I haven't penetrated too far into Occupied Lands. However, I've done some fighting in the Fort Monastery area (which I assume I need to return to later), and I've been doing okay there, except for those slimes that split into four exploding slimes. Those have been a bit of a [censored].

[Earth]

exploding slimes are better to be killed at distance.

[Leaper]

Oh, I know. I was just finding it difficult to do, especially when multiples were involved. But I managed.

 

Still thinking of raising Endurance, though - if 8 is good for Normal, they should be 9 or 10 for Hard...?

[Randomizer]

I usually add +2 endurance for each extra level of difficulty. But that's mostly because the fights drag out so long that I want to avoid a character death if a swarm gets lucky.

[Earth]

Oh, I know. I was just finding it difficult to do, especially when multiples were involved. But I managed.

 

I killed those that 1-2 chars were blocking and attacking them 1 by 1 so those couldn't attack whole party and when 1 was near dead 1st caster healed party and 2nd killed slime that had been attacked.